We moved back to Chicago in '76 and put the Venture back at the Navy Base. After the Venture was settled we then looked for a house to put us in. Seeing as Kim was born in Kansas and we were getting a little larger, we got in the market for a larger boat. We found her in Monroe Harbor, a C&C 27, named her KIMOW II and moved her up to Great Lakes. She fit our growing family like a glove (we added Corey after moving back to Chicago). With a fixed keel boat, it now took us a couple days to get up to Door County ( forget about the North Channel). Cruising was still a possibility but only during vacation, so we took up racing. Our goal was to finish before the beer ran out; but unfortunately we placed in a race and started to take things seriously.

We then moved up to Milwaukee and really started to take this racing thing kind of seriously. So we were in the market for a slightly larger, faster boat. On the way back from a Mackinac race, we found Rascal, a Nelson Merek-designed Santana 30/30 over in Muskegon. After sailing her back to Milwaukee, we joined the MORC fleet and had a ball. We even raced the Mac and cruised the North Channel.

We then moved to Minneapolis and put Rascal up in Lake Superior. Rascal looked awful small in that big lake and as we were in one of the best cruising areas around, we were in the market again, this time a cruising boat. We found Bandit (a C&C 34+) at the Minneapolis boat show. So we moved Bandit to Bayfield and put Rascal on the market in Duluth. We, of course, immediately entered the Apostle Island Race Week; cruising can wait. But not for long, we cruised the entire Apostle Islands and Isle Royale.

Not one to gather any moss, we moved back to Chicago. Fortunately (?), Rascal hadn't sold, so we moved her back to Great Lakes and sailed Bandit along the south shore of Lake Superior, through the Sault lock, down the St. Mary's to Sturgeon Bay. We raced Rascal in Chicago and cruised Bandit in Green Bay. This worked well for awhile but taking care of two boats was a drag, so we sold Bandit and turned our full attention to racing Rascal. But due to an unfortunate turn of events we lost Rascal and were back in the market, cruising this time, for real.

We found Toucan, a Catalina 380, at the Racine in-the-water boat show. We weren't sure so we went to the Michigan City in-the-water boat show. Indecisive, we went back and went for a sail the next weekend and wrote a check. We raced her a little but took our cruising seriously. Some details on Toucan follow:

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